City Of Hope Becoming An Inspiration To Other Cities

An Eastern Kentucky town becomes an inspiration to the state of Georgia.

Two pastors from the newly named Manchester, City of Hope, have been asked to help several Georgia communities get organized on the war on drugs.

62 churches plus dozens of community members gave drug dealers only one option in 2004, get out or get busted. Since then, pastors in the city of Manchester say they've seen an unprecedented number of former drug addicts and dealers sober up. The turn around was so drastic that it got attention nationwide.

The Christian Broadcast Network has aired three stories on the newly named City of Hope already.

"I think people thought if that small town could do it, we could too," said Community Church Pastor Doug Abner.

The town is celebrating it's 200th anniversary this year and Abner says there's no better gift than being seen as an inspiration rather than a curse for the first time.

"We were blown away because we have a serious meth problem and when we saw that video we were blown away because someone had an answer about how to attack it," Abner said.

Abner says Operation UNITE and the Federal Bureau of Investigations made the biggest impact. UNITE allowed pastors to approach suspected drug dealers during round ups for the first time, a church and state relationship that they're trying to initiate in Georgia. You could call it a miniature version of Operation UNITE without the federal funding.

Pastors Doug Abner and Ken Bowling are headed back to Georgia this weekend to help organize four anti-drug rallies in four counties.

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